IS YOUR JOB DRAINING THE LIFE OUT OF YOU? …. Let’s sort that out!

August 29, 2017

For some clients, It is rat race of a world and the race just keeps getting faster and more intense. Clients come to see me because their life does not “hum” anymore. They have been successful all their lives but now, there is no excitement in their work or much else in life.

They decide that career or job change is the answer. We work together to determine their hopes and desires for their next steps; who they want to be in their next job; and what strengths they choose to bring to their next position. When we finish, we discover that their current job is actually a fairly good fit for most for what they are looking for in their work life but their life is all work. They work into the evening and then come home to the obligatory chores of looking after a family and a home. It is like there is no gas left in their engine.

I introduce them to Jamie Gruman’s TED Talk, ReNU and they realize that it is not their work that is entirely the problem. The issue is that their leisure is in trouble. In fact, with some clients, leisure is completely missing in their life.

In a 2016 Forbes blog post, Why We Burn Out In The Workplace And Why It Matters, Brett Steenbarger writes: “Play is our fuel; it gives us much of our joy, satisfaction, energy, and experience of affection. Without that emotional fuel, we burn out. We are most engaged when our tanks are full. That means, however, we must say “yes” to the experiences that provide us with the fuel of well-being. It is the quality of our not-work that energizes and inspires the quality of our work.”

The issue is becoming so common among our clients that our Right Career workshop has a new component dedicated to “safeguarding your leisure” and now clients all watch Gruman’s TED talk as a way to begin the discussion of how they are managing their leisure.

As Steenbarger says, “we can burn out and become disengaged not only because of the ineffective practices of managers, but because of our own ineffective self-management. When we mismanage the business of living, we can become disengaged from life itself.”

Wayne Greenway is Senior Partner with Career Aviators, a Certified B Corporation® that directs all profit to innovative youth leadership initiative in Guelph. He is passionate about helping people to find jobs in which they will excel, value highly and love to do.